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Theism: Open Theism
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Open theism is a relatively new doctrine that has only gained popular prominence since 1994 with the release of the book The Openness of God which was written by five evangelical scholars and edited by Clark Pinnock. What began on the fringes of scholarship has quickly gained a popular following, in part because of the publication of entry-level titles such as Gregory Boyd’s God of the Possible and in part because of the acceptance of the doctrine by various popular authors. While many evangelicals do not embrace this doctrine themselves, they may regard it as an optional doctrine that remains within the pale of orthodox evangelicalism. This article will define the doctrine, describe its chief characteristics, introduce its proponents and explain the challenge to the church.
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The most plausible view of how human libertarian freedom might be compatible with a traditional view of providence, and ... the greatest competitor to Open Theism, is a view called “Molinism,” named after a sixteenth century Jesuit theologian, Luis de Molina. Molina predicated “middle knowledge” to God and explained God’s providential determination of what will occur in terms of this knowledge. Middle knowledge is knowledge that lies between (in an explanatory sense, not a temporal sense) God’s “natural” knowledge of all the possible ways the world might go and His “free” knowledge of the one way the world will go based upon His creative decree. Natural knowledge is pre-volitional knowledge of necessary truths, including all the possibilities for creation. Free knowledge is post-volitional knowledge of contingent truths, including all future contingent truths. And middle knowledge is pre-volitional knowledge of contingent subjunctive conditional truths of the form: if such and such were the case, then so and so would be the case.
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Open theism's beliefs concerning the foreknowledge of God implies many things about the character of God. God literally changes his mind, continues to learn, and is even said to take risks (hence John Sanders' book The God Who Risks). Gregory Boyd, an open theist, notes that "In a cosmos populated by free agents, the outcome of things -- even divine decisions -- is often uncertain." [6]. He states in another place that "God's call to covenantal faithfulness has involved testing. God is seeking to find out whether or not the people he calls will lovingly choose him above all else."
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Open theism (... known as free-will theism, open theology and openness of God) was, until recently, a little-known stirring on the fringes of the evangelical camp. In 1980, few noticed and fewer cared about perennial rebel Clark Pinnock and his friends, who claimed they had discovered the “true” biblical understanding of God. But more recently their views have both matured and emerged into the mainstream of Christian thought through the writings of among others, Pinnock, Gregory A. Boyd, professor of theology at Bethel College (Baptist General Conference) and Professor John Sanders. More lethal is the fact that this new concept of God is sneaking in through the backdoor of the camp by means of popular writers such as Phil Yancey, and the influence of men like Gilbert Bilezikian, who, as the resident theologian of the Willow Creek Community Church , wields tremendous power over the minds of many modern church leaders. Others in line with Yancey and Bilezikian include devotional/mystical writer Richard Foster and theologian Donald Bloesch.[1] Particular danger of this latter group is that they may seldom, if ever, admit to holding open theistic convictions but espouse those views in attractive formats (e.g. Yancey’s popular book, Disappointment with God).
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Fourth, open theism diminishes Christian hope. Some open theists view the church as God's "good luck," that is, a risk-taking God achieved His purpose for a people despite a lack of knowledge about the outcome ahead of time. If the church is God's "good luck," then how can the Christian experience certain hope regarding the consummation of history? Could the risk-taking God -- a God mistaken about past events -- gamble the unknown future and lose? Can an "open" God ever be sure of final victory?
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Open theism revises this view in one way. It accepts the possibility that things could go one way or the other in the future, as the standard view does. It allows that there are some necessary truths about the future. It accepts that there are contingent things about the future. It just won't allow those contingent things to be true or false. If it's not necessary, they say, it must not be true either, even though truth is much weaker than necessity.
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Open Theism